Recycling Thermoplastic Composites

Summary

Thermoplastic composites (TPC) are increasingly used in various sectors due to their high stiffness and strength at low product weight. This can vary from the aviation industry, the automotive industry to the sporting goods sector. However, this also means that more and more material is becoming available for recycling, waste generated during the production of parts and end-of-life products. In general, thermoplastic composites are presented as a highly recyclable material, but this is rarely done in practice, and certainly not on a large scale.

This research therefore focuses on the recycling of carbon fiber thermoplastic composite production waste, where the aim is to retain as much of the favorable mechanical properties as possible. It was previously proven that it is possible to make injection molding granules from this waste, but the fibers had to be significantly reduced in size (<6 mm), at the expense of the properties. The current research will focus on preserving these fibers and their associated properties as much as possible. In addition, the effect of variations in the recycling flow on both the processing of the material and its properties will be investigated. All this will be investigated with TPAC’s in-house recycling process: low-shear recycling.

The aim is to further investigate the possibilities regarding recycling C/PPS and C/PA. The end goal is to recycle carbon fiber composite production waste in a high-quality manner.

Project partners

SPIRAL RTC

Duration

1 years, Start in May 2024

Funding

KIEM Hightech subsidy, financed by Regieorgaan SIA, part of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)